Hold off the search party! I am not drowning in a vat of hot chocolate or anything…

However, for future reference if I’ve ever gone more than four days between posts you should probably come looking for me because it more than likely means that I have gotten lost in the junk food section at the grocery store and can’t find my way out. Luckily, these past few days have been the exception.

I’ve been busy writing a 22 page paper for my final project (for my final class) before student teaching. YAY! It was a bit stressful trying to get this done during Thanksgiving but I managed to pull through with a 99% in the class.

Why, yes I’m bragging. I just need you to validate me and then we can move on… thanks. 

Even though I had a stressful project for school to complete we still managed to have a fun family filled weekend. My in-laws, however, left early on Saturday morning after seeing the note I left on my kitchen white board on Friday night.

They figured they had until 10:30 to get the heck out of here before they had overstayed their welcome.

In reality, I doodled this while I was talking to my friend Andrea on the phone about the Christmas tree hunting adventure we were planning during the weekend. Brent and I were lacking a few of the needed supplies.

Andrea and her husband Jon always get permits to cut down their own Christmas trees and this year they invited us to join them. I was super excited about it but also a bit nervous. Visions of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation kept dancing through my head.

Surprisingly, nothing went awry and our first trip to chop down our own Christmas tree was everything we hoped it would be. The drive out to the national park was beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We’ve decided to make it a yearly tradition.

 

While we were out there Andrea offered to take family pictures of us for our Christmas cards. (This is one of the perks of being BFF’s with a photographer.) Andrea owns Life Du Luxe Art, so if you are local she’s your gal!

We used Andrea’s equipment to take family photos of Jon and Andrea as well and mid-shoot they were bombarded by carolers on horseback.

It was actually pretty hilarious.

The kids thought it was awesome because not only did they get to pet the horses but they were given candy canes to munch on as well.

We managed to get our Charlie Brown Christmas tree home in one piece. Penelope has already managed to tear down all of the ornaments off of the lower branches and half of the pine needles along with it.

Every time she rips an ornament down she scrunches up her nose and sniffs as hard as she can. It does smell pretty amazing. In the meantime, our old fake tree has found a home at the fire station to keep those lonely firefighters company.

Since the family has left town I’ve been trying to clean up my diet. I’ve been loading up on lots of fruits and veggies…

I even raided the bulk bins at the grocery store in hopes of saving a little money.

I plan on making my own hummus and I’ve already made some amazing homemade granola. I’ve been chugging down a lot of water and tea as well. Speaking of which…

***The winner of the Swami Mami Teatox is Marci! Please email me at toohottieforthatbody@gmail.com with your shipping information so that I can make arrangements to get it to you.***

P.S. Here are a few more recipes I’m tempted to try in order to make use of my bulk bin purchases…

Harira: Moroccan Chickpea with Chicken and Lentils

Kale, Lentil and Chicken Soup

I also plan on checking out a few of the bulk bin recipes from Naturally Ella as well.